Challenges with Mike Johnson's Promised Obligations
The speaker provided conflicting assurances to various factions of Republicans in order to advance his budget plan.
TroibNews 
Speaker Mike Johnson achieved a significant victory last week by pushing forward his budget plan for President Donald Trump’s extensive domestic agenda. In doing so, he offered a range of competing and occasionally contradictory assurances to various factions within his conference.
Republican senators now have the chance to modify the plan in the weeks ahead. However, the two chambers will need to come together under a unified framework, and with Johnson advancing his budget by a narrow margin of just one vote, his options may be limited.
Among those he must now appease are tax writers advocating for a costly permanent extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, hard-liners seeking even deeper spending reductions should the tax measures expand, vulnerable swing-district members needing guarantees regarding safety-net programs, and even billionaire Elon Musk, who has openly criticized Johnson's proposal.
Trump himself has sided with various factions at different times, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.
Public tensions are already surfacing. Hard-liners, for instance, have urged Johnson to resist Senate efforts to dilute the deep cuts they secured. “The House has spoken,” said head rebel Rep. Chip Roy. “And I think we need to defend that position.”
Conversely, some members are hoping for modifications to ease the potential backlash that at-risk Republicans might face, particularly regarding the substantial $880 billion in savings demanded from the Medicaid oversight committee.
“The Senate will never agree with [those cuts] — that's just the fact,” remarked Rep. Don Bacon, representing a district won by Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Johnson is already demonstrating some flexibility as he navigates these divergent demands. Last week, he hinted at a growing alignment with Senate GOP thinking on the permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts — suggesting an accounting approach that effectively negates the cost of maintaining current tax policies.
This tactic would simplify the math for Republicans, especially if they aim to add further tax cuts on top of these extensions, such as following Trump’s promises to exempt tips, overtime earnings, and Social Security benefits from income tax. It may also facilitate rolling back cuts achieved by House fiscal conservatives last month.
However, Roy and other members of the House Freedom Caucus are closely monitoring the situation to ensure that cuts remain intact and potentially deepened should additional tax cuts be incorporated into the package.
“We've stated there was a floor [for cuts], and we ought to stick to it being a floor,” Roy noted. “If the Senate wants to move to permanence, and if any of that is going up, we're going to have to see even more cuts.”
“They're welcome to debate it,” added Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Freedom Caucus member, regarding the possible accounting shift. “But as long as we stick to the instructions in the resolution itself, I don't think it matters.”
Johnson also indicated last week that he would forgo some of the more drastic proposed reductions to Medicaid, which provides coverage for 72 million Americans. By removing per-capita caps on state reimbursements and reducing the federal matching rate—both of which he suggested during a CNN interview—he raised questions among some Republicans about how to achieve the required cuts elsewhere in Medicaid.
However, this shift reassured GOP members like New York’s Nicole Malliotakis, who expressed gratitude for the “important assurance” provided by Johnson’s remarks in a post on X last week.
In both instances, Johnson's decisions appear aligned with Trump, who publicly called for permanent tax cuts last week and indicated that Medicaid would remain untouched, except for addressing “fraud.” Senior Republicans believe the budget blueprint can be adjusted to accommodate the president's preferences, possibly utilizing tariff revenue to fill any gaps, and they think dissenting members will eventually acquiesce.
An unsettling development for Johnson and senior Republicans is Musk's criticisms of the speaker's budget plan. Most recently, he shared a post from Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against it. Massie argues that Johnson’s plan would exacerbate the national debt, a point that Musk seemed to endorse.
“Inflation is the worst tax of all, as it punishes those who are just barely making ends meet or have gathered some savings,” Musk stated in response to Massie’s critique of Johnson’s plan.
Johnson has tried to downplay Musk’s social media comments, declaring in a brief interview that he had “no concerns” after the tech mogul's criticism surfaced online just before the recent budget vote. In December, Musk had publicly lambasted a spending deal Johnson negotiated with Democrats, prompting the speaker to abandon it.
Johnson also has custom commitments to uphold that extend beyond the budget framework. Some House Republicans are pressing for discretionary spending cuts to be included in the spending bill anticipated before the March 14 shutdown deadline. Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio secured a promise along these lines in exchange for his support of Johnson’s budget last week.
Davidson announced on X that he backed Johnson’s plan after he “finally received the assurances I needed that there will be cuts to discretionary spending by 3/14 and that we will work together to develop a plan for further discretionary spending cuts that could survive passage in the Senate.”
He added: “Promises made …”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Debra A Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
Republican senators now have the chance to modify the plan in the weeks ahead. However, the two chambers will need to come together under a unified framework, and with Johnson advancing his budget by a narrow margin of just one vote, his options may be limited.
Among those he must now appease are tax writers advocating for a costly permanent extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, hard-liners seeking even deeper spending reductions should the tax measures expand, vulnerable swing-district members needing guarantees regarding safety-net programs, and even billionaire Elon Musk, who has openly criticized Johnson's proposal.
Trump himself has sided with various factions at different times, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.
Public tensions are already surfacing. Hard-liners, for instance, have urged Johnson to resist Senate efforts to dilute the deep cuts they secured. “The House has spoken,” said head rebel Rep. Chip Roy. “And I think we need to defend that position.”
Conversely, some members are hoping for modifications to ease the potential backlash that at-risk Republicans might face, particularly regarding the substantial $880 billion in savings demanded from the Medicaid oversight committee.
“The Senate will never agree with [those cuts] — that's just the fact,” remarked Rep. Don Bacon, representing a district won by Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Johnson is already demonstrating some flexibility as he navigates these divergent demands. Last week, he hinted at a growing alignment with Senate GOP thinking on the permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts — suggesting an accounting approach that effectively negates the cost of maintaining current tax policies.
This tactic would simplify the math for Republicans, especially if they aim to add further tax cuts on top of these extensions, such as following Trump’s promises to exempt tips, overtime earnings, and Social Security benefits from income tax. It may also facilitate rolling back cuts achieved by House fiscal conservatives last month.
However, Roy and other members of the House Freedom Caucus are closely monitoring the situation to ensure that cuts remain intact and potentially deepened should additional tax cuts be incorporated into the package.
“We've stated there was a floor [for cuts], and we ought to stick to it being a floor,” Roy noted. “If the Senate wants to move to permanence, and if any of that is going up, we're going to have to see even more cuts.”
“They're welcome to debate it,” added Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Freedom Caucus member, regarding the possible accounting shift. “But as long as we stick to the instructions in the resolution itself, I don't think it matters.”
Johnson also indicated last week that he would forgo some of the more drastic proposed reductions to Medicaid, which provides coverage for 72 million Americans. By removing per-capita caps on state reimbursements and reducing the federal matching rate—both of which he suggested during a CNN interview—he raised questions among some Republicans about how to achieve the required cuts elsewhere in Medicaid.
However, this shift reassured GOP members like New York’s Nicole Malliotakis, who expressed gratitude for the “important assurance” provided by Johnson’s remarks in a post on X last week.
In both instances, Johnson's decisions appear aligned with Trump, who publicly called for permanent tax cuts last week and indicated that Medicaid would remain untouched, except for addressing “fraud.” Senior Republicans believe the budget blueprint can be adjusted to accommodate the president's preferences, possibly utilizing tariff revenue to fill any gaps, and they think dissenting members will eventually acquiesce.
An unsettling development for Johnson and senior Republicans is Musk's criticisms of the speaker's budget plan. Most recently, he shared a post from Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against it. Massie argues that Johnson’s plan would exacerbate the national debt, a point that Musk seemed to endorse.
“Inflation is the worst tax of all, as it punishes those who are just barely making ends meet or have gathered some savings,” Musk stated in response to Massie’s critique of Johnson’s plan.
Johnson has tried to downplay Musk’s social media comments, declaring in a brief interview that he had “no concerns” after the tech mogul's criticism surfaced online just before the recent budget vote. In December, Musk had publicly lambasted a spending deal Johnson negotiated with Democrats, prompting the speaker to abandon it.
Johnson also has custom commitments to uphold that extend beyond the budget framework. Some House Republicans are pressing for discretionary spending cuts to be included in the spending bill anticipated before the March 14 shutdown deadline. Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio secured a promise along these lines in exchange for his support of Johnson’s budget last week.
Davidson announced on X that he backed Johnson’s plan after he “finally received the assurances I needed that there will be cuts to discretionary spending by 3/14 and that we will work together to develop a plan for further discretionary spending cuts that could survive passage in the Senate.”
He added: “Promises made …”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Debra A Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
